Panel · 4:25 PM · Thursday, May 14, 2026
Rohan, watch out. We're going to get to a fun spot. We have two sessions left. We're kind of ahead of the game here, which is kind of nice because it's a beautiful day out there and we'll have a bar and a lot more time to socialize with folks like Rohan and Julie. This is an unfiltered session with the analysts. And I've kind of taken it to heart. So being unfiltered, it's going to be they don't know what questions are going to be asked of them. They're going to give honest, real-time answers here. And so it should be fun, at least for me. But, you know, there's a lot of apprehension on what might happen with my crews. So please join me in welcoming up Dana, Ashwin, Jason, Hansa. I'm going to move the slide forward. Oops. Melissa. I think we've got everybody. So this is great. So this could be a lot of fun here, guys. What questions should I ask? I'll start with an easy one. And this is one for each one of you. I'll start with Rohan. We'll go across. What's one buzzword that we should stop using and why in this industry? AI. Why?
So you and I talk about this, as do a lot of my colleagues here. I am obsessed about the application of AI in the industry to make it better for human beings. I'm not seeing enough of that. And until we prove to ourselves that we're able to do that on a consistent basis, I don't think we want the right to keep using AI for the sake of using AI.
Melissa? What buzzword do you hate?
I don't know if it's any in our industry necessarily, but I'm getting really sick of the Claude-generated language.
Okay.
Like, if I had to pick one, I'd say, maybe moat.
Moat.
Because, and I actually had to ask somebody the other day, I'm like, is the moat, are you challenging? Like, is a moat like you're trying to attack the castle or you're defending the castle? I've used it, I've heard it used both ways.
Hansa. Well, I would say outcome-based. Yeah, God, nobody knows what those outcomes are. Everybody has a different way of defining it and it just creates pure chaos unless there's a bit more of understanding of what outcomes actually mean for that particular, you know, enterprise case study, whatever.
So it's like outcome-based. Given how much we've used it here, what would you suggest we use?
I would say we should use impact as a statement and I agree with Rohan wholeheartedly when you say that he says that at the end of the day, you are creating products for humans that are going to be consumed by humans. Technology is like a tool that you use. So what kind of impact are you having on the people in your organization, on the consumers that you serve? So I would say instead of focusing on just outcomes, which could be many different things to many different people, focus on impact.
Transformation.
Transformation.
What are you transforming from what to what? I think it can be a word that's used for small process transformations to bigger things as well. So just stop using it and define what you're going towards.
Jason? I'm toward the end here, so a few of mine are already taken. I was going to start with AI from Rohan, so thanks for taking that one. And then Hansa took outcome-based. I agree with her on that point. So I'm not sure if it's a buzzword, but replacement in terms of AI replacing what you already do instead of enhancing. So not sure if it's directly a buzzword, but I'll say replacement. Yeah.
Bring it home, Ashwin.
I would think the words provider or integrator kind of don't hold value in the future. I think the way we are describing in terms of outcome-based value creation, intent-based services, I think anyone who's gonna come and help out is gonna be a value orchestrator or something. I think that the term quote-unquote provider kind of sells it short in that sense.
All right. Awesome. See, that wasn't hard, guys. You were doing nothing. But I realized I don't have any other questions. Warren, do you have a question? And feel free to aim it at somebody or just let them, it should be open. It should be on. No.
I can just be one of the questions online. Exactly. All right. So I have two questions for you. My first question is, what was the most impactful statement that you heard in the last year? There we go. It's live. What's the most impactful statement you heard in the last two days? And then the other one, and much more serious, is if you guys were on a sinking boat, who would you save who's on the stage with you?
I'll take both of those questions. Okay, I'll start unless Ashwin, you wanna start? Yeah, go for it. So I don't know if it's the most impactful, but the one that really resonated with me was what CP said yesterday, that experience will be the biggest differentiator between the machine and the human. Right. As far as who I would save on that sinking boat ship, would definitely be Jason.
I was gonna go with that too.
Only because of what we heard at the keynote yesterday about how the youngest generation is feeling lonely. I just wanna make a point that you should not be lonely. We're here for you, buddy.
I appreciate that.
Well done, well done. Okay, we're going by lane, okay. You, Melissa.
Oh no, I said well done, yeah.
Yeah, okay. I think the best line I've taken away is that we need to move slow to move fast. I think a lot of the discussions have been around the hoopla that's been created by some of the tech vendors in terms of creating FOMO and what's happening. I think if I had to summarize what I actually really picked up from a lot of enterprise conversations, it was like, hey, we understand the urgency, but there's a pace at which all of this needs to happen. So we need to move slow and then move at the right pace. I think that kind of has stuck with me. I think I'll also pick Jason. I think he's the one who's most probable in terms of carrying me. So yeah, that'll be Jason.
Yeah, I would agree with Ashwin in terms of you gotta move slow to move fast. So that gives you more, brings a sense of pragmatism to all the hype. So you have to cut through the noise and figure out what's important and focus on that. In terms of who I'd save, I've got to figure out who's the better swimmer here.
I can go. So I think the thing that I like the most is someone said yesterday that today we're talking about AI, but next year are some of it might be about relationships and friendships and connections and more of that, you know, talking to people rather than just hearing the same buzzwords being used over and over again. In terms of who I'd save, I'm going to pick Jason. I'm just going to go with this. We can't take anywhere else now.
I'm getting a lot of love. I don't know if I can.
You're sure to survive.
I guess I'll take it.
You got to go next.
I mean, I have to pick everyone then, right? No. I'll keep the boat up myself, I guess. So I'll start with the first one of what I thought was most impactful. Ashish, maybe recency bias on my half with the vinegar in wine, as you just mentioned. Vintage over vinegar. I thought that stuck because just adopting these tools to try to see easy gains where they might not be truly beneficial and then having quality outcomes is something how I took that. I could also save you. A lot of love, so I appreciate it all. Who I would save, I feel like a bad guy because I can't pick everybody now.
Pick the worst swimmer.
Pick the worst swimmer. That's not my reason, but I'm going to take Melissa. Yes. She's been a huge help for me. The closest to me physically in terms of living in Massachusetts. So we'll keep the Boston strong.
All right, yeah.
But respect everybody. And I apologize for not being able to save them all.
I think I'm last. Someone asked someone on a panel today, what's one thing you could do? And I'm sorry, whoever you are, I don't remember, but your response was that pick one thing. And that really stuck with me because so many people are stuck in analysis paralysis or they're stuck in committee paralysis or they're stuck in I'm afraid to do this, I'm afraid to bring this up. So I'm going to take that away from myself too. Just pick one thing and just go for it and try and implement something new AI-wise. And gosh, Jason, I love you, but Rohan's going to help me live forever. So.
Well, I already did.
Everybody's done. Oh, I'm out of questions again. Let's see. Look, Jay Moore's here. Jay, would you have a question for our panel?
My first question is for Joel.
I like that.
Yes. Thank you, Jay. Jay, that's what I say. You ran a mic over to someone earlier, and I was just wondering, did we witness a personal best, or have you performed better at other events? You really think you're on top of your game today?
I think given the fact that it's been two days at MCing, that was probably my personal best.
Okay, thanks. Phil started this conference, I think, saying something about we're not going to be having a conference around AI in a couple years. What are we going to be talking about? Anyone?
That was my answer.
So you can go first.
Ways of working, operation models, relationship plus AI, engagement.
Focus on AI. What comes after the AI has gone through?
I think AI won't be the standalone thing. It'll be something that's kind of embedded within how we work as well. So then you have to kind of elevate that conversation to how are you working, how are you changing, how your organization is operating, and things like that. So it won't be about the technology anymore. It'll be about the working itself.
Yeah, it will also be about the generational gap that will start showing up in the workforce. You have three, four different generations operating at once. One of them is extremely AI native and half of them are not. So how do you build a culture that makes sure that everyone is on the same page, everyone is online in terms of being able to leverage the technology that's available to them now so freely? That probably is going to be the conversation.
You do realize Jason's not saving you. That's fine.
I think had you said three years, I would have said probably how to quantum AI, given the timeline for Q-Day is three years. So we might be talking about that very soon as well. I think in the interim hope we get to see a lot of AI-driven enterprise-wide transformation case studies and where everyone has figured it out.
I would lean back to the… Jason? Yeah, sorry. I would go back to the ways of human work in the operating model. One of our past summits was human at the helm. I think that's always going to be important. I think humans are always going to be in the loop. So the ways humans utilize these technologies is something that I think is always going to be the conversation.
I am noticing that a lot of industries are disrupting not only the way that they're working, but the value proposition that they're creating. So I would imagine in the next couple of years, the businesses that we know today of doing or developing a widget is probably doing something else. I think this transformation or transition, however we want to characterize it, is probably going to be worth our while because the economy is going to look very different based on this disruption. It's a very fuzzy idea I have, but that's kind of where I think it's probably a discussion that we will be having.
All right. Marissa.
Thanks. So I have two questions for you also because it seems to be the theme. The first one, if you had to predict one wildcard event that would shake up the industry this year, what would it be? And the second one being a little more fun, if you could invent a new holiday for the industry, what would we be celebrating every year?
Good question. I think we should be celebrating humanity.
Yes.
Decency and humanity.
That's every day.
That's every day.
Are we allowed to? Every day. Maybe we can think of one non-AI day, like Earth Day.
Yeah, turn everything off. Maybe don't speak about it. I would say the whole world turns everything off for one day so that we can just focus on nature, we can focus on the immense beauty that is around us that we're not even looking at. We're so focused on the screens, we don't look up. We are so into our headsets that we don't hear the birds chirp anymore. And half the kids can't recognize the birds based on their sounds. So I think focus on, turn everything off, completely disconnect and have 24 hours of just being by yourself, just being, not connected, just being.
March 20th, that was the day that COVID shut everything down. You could hear the birds again. Oh, that could be a wild card actually.
I hate to say it, but.
Yeah, it could be a wild card even, you know, pandemic.
Another pandemic. Not that I wish that by any means, but it's a possibility.
And yeah, I don't wanna go to the doomsday scenarios, but.
It could be a positive event also.
Given humanity's history, I don't have much hope.
Anything else?
Anna, you didn't give me a holiday.
I can't think of anything positive.
So maybe that could be a holiday, right? Take a day to think about positive things.
My dog, Junie, is a very cute cockapoo. We can have a day to celebrate her life. Thank you. There you go.
It's world cocktail day. We are getting there, David. We are getting there.
That's a great idea. What is everyone's favorite cocktail? Ask AI.
Don't ask AI. Ask the analyst. Do you have a question for the analyst?
Did everyone turn off for a day? What would that represent in reduction of energy consumption on that day?
I don't have a calculator. Yeah.
Yeah, I honestly always felt that the Earth Day or the Earth Hour thing that we do should be much more, you know, and be done in a more global fashion. Organized. It seems to be a concept that not even a lot of people are aware of. I think it starts from there, to be honest.
I would just turn the lights off on all commercial buildings for a night. 'Cause when I moved to the US from India, that's a very typical thing that I see that, you know, shops, showrooms, buildings, all the lights are blaring and there are no off switches for any of the outlets, like, turn things off.
I have an opposite one now that I've thought of, which is agent or robot appreciation day, because one day we're going to have to love our robot companions. How would you do that? Celebrate them. Give them the day off, you know? Turn them off. That's what, turn them off.
So here's a question for you guys, based on Melissa, Jay, and Warren's questioning of you. If you had to save one of them, or no, no, if you had to choose one of their companies to save.
Hi. That's so quick. Seriously, that's brutal.
Does anybody else have, I mean, we've been here for two days. These analysts have both presented. They shared their ideas. They've met with most of you. Other questions you guys might have for these guys before you take off?
Yes, we do this.
Questions for the analysts? Things that can make you millions that maybe they can help with. Oh, you have a question? Analyst-to-analyst question. You're in trouble.
Hey, guys. We keep talking about the future of IT services, BPO services. What do you think is our future, future of research services? Where do you see us three years from now?
Doing more advisory work. I think the value of written word is diminishing with AI quite a bit. We have so much content out there. We have a lot of data out there as well. It's now about getting closer with our clients and actually being their helping hand.
Yeah. Yeah, and we are eating our own Services-as-Software thing, right? So when you look at it, we are codifying the intelligence that we have built in the tools that we showcased a little bit ago. Now it becomes our role to help you ask the right questions and help you work through the answers for those questions. So a lot of more advisory, a lot of bringing the expertise, helping you connect the dots between the broad picture and between what's doable, what's practical. So I think we'll be more, relying more on our knowledge, our expertise, rather than just the data that we can produce.
And relationships.
Absolutely.
I think that's what people are looking for now. I mean, they were always important, but I was just talking to somebody, Jay, you know, AR professionals aren't just going to send a packet for somebody to read anymore. So this is where our advisory, which you guys articulated, comes in, but also our relationships with clients. We can be a sounding board on both the vendor and the enterprise side. We can be, you know, here, pitch this to me. What am I missing? What's the competition doing? That's intel that we know from having relationships versus just, you know, something that anybody could look up online or with their Claude or copilot or ChatGPT.
You have a question? Sure. On top of that question, how do you scale that? How do you scale advisory?
That's a question for Saurabh.
Exactly. That's a question for him, for sure. But if I had to take a stab, I would say, bring together people who think out of the box, who ask the difficult question, who think the unconventional, bring those people together and then you have a room full of brilliant minds that are asking questions that nobody's asked before, and that's how you do advisory.
I think similar to, and I think building on Hansa's point, I see the analyst industry to be similar as any other professional services industry. I think the curve's going to move towards a higher revenue per analyst kind of a model, where the grunt work of getting insights together or doing the basic research, it's gonna get automated and it's the value that you add on top of it. So hopefully that will also help us kind of push, move away from the classical amount of time we are putting in in terms of researching for reports. It's the quality on top that we bring in, which allows us to spend more time with clients such as you, right? I think that's where the model is going to end. It's not going to be easy for us as well to do that, but I fundamentally believe that's where the model will head, right? I don't think you can have another 4,000 shop analyst company either when we say that you can't have 600 ft, you know, services company. I think it's a very similar analogy for me.
Rohan, thoughts about scaling, especially if we're going to focus on industry. Nia, as a, where's, there he is. Oh, all right, you're way over here. I have to try for new personal best.
Yeah, so I want to check if either of you have planned a holiday, and where are you going, who are you taking along?
I'm going to Napa Valley with Marisa.
Yeah, I'm taking a break with my family for just two weeks of hiking. So we are big nature lovers. Summer is a beautiful time of the year, and some of the nature we can see is amazing. So Northern California, two weeks of hiking for different national parks. That's lovely.
Can we get that into the holiday?
I don't have one planned. I was talking to Perlina earlier about her Hawaii trip, so I think I might have to do the same. So, if we've got it. I like that idea. Your trip. Everyone.
Yeah. Then the question will be, are we going to come back?
That is the question. I'm not sure.
The question is, who's funding it?
Any other holidays planned?
Staycation.
Staycation. All right. Questions? Sure.
What will be the official hashtag for next year's HFS Spring Summit?
I was actually thinking how to pragmatically AI, but this one turned out to be that way anyway. That's a good one.
HFS is awesome. Yeah. Does that work?
Good one. We can leave it at that. How to human? Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah. That's a good one.
No, you should say how to human.
That's what I said.
You said how to human. No, I said how to human.
How to human. Yeah. Yeah.
Any other questions?
Just because you had Hochul and we had augmentation with AI and augmented individuals, if each of you could be augmented with something, what is that thing that you want to buy, use, build, or sell? What's the augmentation thing that each of you would like to have?
Oh, that's a very easy one to answer. I'd love to have a bot that will do all my chores for me. Trust me, I spend way too much time on the weekends on chores. If I could automate that, I would.
Work-wise, if I could have, like, a Saurabh clone bot?
I actually, so I gave some of my agents a Saurabh persona. I pulled in some of your content, and I did actually replicate that already, so that's already there for me. Can you share that? No, it's fine.
I think I'll go with what Phil also mentioned. I think I can do with a bit more brain tokens. The reality is the market is shifting so fast. It's sometimes even a little difficult and overwhelming for us as analysts to keep track. If there were a way where I was always ahead of what's happening in the market, I think it gives me more bandwidth to go and help clients in terms of where they should go.
So next frame, go back and use our whole side.
Yeah.
Mike, you want to ask the last question? Mike, Mike.
So a whole load of stuff on artificial intelligence and all of that. So what is the future of learning for us? Yeah.
For us? Us as in the industry or analysts?
The idea of why do I need to learn? I can ask more. Why would I go to school? What is the future of learning?
What is the future of that? Yeah. Learning will be a lot about how to human aspect, which is how do you bring in your own ideas? How do you have critical thinking abilities right now? Because these tools are making it so easy, and this is kind of the talk I always talk about, but to just offload a lot of your thinking. You no longer have to actually question the output because it looks so perfect, it looks clean, so therefore you accept it. And the challenges for this next generation is how do you drive people to actually question that output? Because as nice as it looks and as nice as it looks, but you're creating kind of a sea of sameness in terms of content. So how can you differentiate and how can you create more value around that?
I think there are a lot of human values like ethics, system thinking and all of that, I think which is more critical than how critical they were before. I think all of these things can't be thought theoretically. You need to have practical experience. You need to have social connections. The social equity needs to be there. And I think that's good. If I refer back to what Ed was mentioning yesterday, that everything that he was talking about, I can almost refer to that PPT, but I think when you think of AI and the implications it will have, it will have implications for the coming generations. Systems thinking and all of that, I don't think that can be learned theoretically or asking Claude, right? So, yeah, all the more reason that we need to, we need to, but I think learning needs to be more continuous, obviously, right? It needs to be embedded, and that's why the curriculum also needs to be more practically oriented than theoretical, I think, so that people touch, feel, and learn. That would be my sense.
Yeah.
All right.
Absolutely.
Absolutely. Rohan, you had one last comment on learning?
I think the learning that we have today is good as long as it is done in a much more consistent manner. But the thing that I find a big gap in that learning is not being able to teach kids what's right or wrong because everything has become so political. If we can somehow figure that out, right? I remember without having to date myself long, long time ago when I went to school, there used to be a class called moral science. It actually taught you what good or bad was. I think it might be time for us to sort of go back to those days, just for moral science. Awesome. That's time, guys.
You survived. Thank you, guys. Thank you for your questions.
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